Discussion

Houston Chronicle, May 16, 2018, by Alyson Ward

"The first work trucks rolled up at 47 N. Longspur on Christmas Eve 2013 — and they’ve never left.

The neighbors well remember the day. Overnight, it seemed, pickup trucks and trailers by the dozen started growling down the tranquil street in The Woodlands. They’d line up to park in front of the house, clogging the narrow roadway and bringing workers and construction noise with them.

“There was dust and dirt everywhere,” one neighbor said. “The whole street was just covered in mud constantly.”

Now it’s known as the “monster house,” an 18,000-square-foot home that sprawls across two lots in the curvy bend of a tree-lined street in Grogan Mills. Neighbors haven’t been able to stop it; the township can’t stop it. It stands — still under renovation — as a test to the controls in one of the nation’s iconic master-planned communities.

Even in a nation where homes are getting larger and larger, the Grogan's Mill property is legendary.

The couple who had lived in the house for years moved out a month or so before the trucks rolled up. The new owners wanted to renovate before moving in. But this was no small renovation. ..."

VICE IMPACT, February 2, 2018, by Emily Weitz

A culture that prides bigger-as-better has forced small communities across the globe to a critical environmental crossroads.

"Thomas Bena was a carpenter on Martha’s Vineyard for many years before he realized he no longer believed in the work he was doing. He was building multi-thousand square foot homes for people who would barely occupy them: homes that would disrupt or destroy ecosystems, suck up energy, and cause constant light pollution. At first, it seemed like a resort town’s problem, but as he delved deeper, he realized that this problem affected cities, suburbs, and rural areas as well. A culture of consumption and excess misconstrued as the vehicle to create jobs and improve home values, when what was lost was often not weighed against what was gained. ..."

TedEx, December 15, 2017

We aim to energize change, and to help local activists broaden their reach.

We provide powerful films and all the support materials you need to create an effective community event.

We will send out strategic petitions, asking you to sign and send them on to your network, using the power of this medium on behalf of the people and the earth. These will be either national in scope — asking you to join an uproar of opinion, or very local — asking you to add your voice to attain a specific victory, which may provide a watershed — changing the mindset of the people empowered in a community, of multinational corporations' assumptions as to what they can get away with, and of politicians who notice the change in the wind.

We will provide a forum for sharing ideas that work and news that can inform action on an issue. We ask for your discussion, suggestions, feedback, and reports of successes in your community.